An agency that provides drinking water to roughly 200,000 people in South San Diego County is poised to award a $150,000 consulting contract to a former employee who once sued the agency and now has close personal and political ties to its governing board members.  Directors at Wednesday’s board meeting of the Sweetwater Authority in Chula Vista will vote on awarding the $225-per-hour consulting contract to Michael Garrod, a retired engineering manager who, along with three other employees, sued the agency in 2012 for allegedly discriminating against non-white employees and retaliating against people who complained. The lawsuit was settled in 2014 with no admission of wrongdoing by the agency. Garrod withdrew his complaint after one of the other plaintiffs settled.